*Please note I began this blog in December while preparing for Christmas and before Sashimi died :( Yes, thats how busy I've been that it takes me over a month to write a blog...I've not been keeping up with any of my New Years Resolutions at all.*
I've been teaching at an Eikaiwa (private English conversation school) in rural Japan for nearly a year now. Admittedly, I didn't like it at first but now that my contract is coming to an end, I can't bear the thought of leaving some of the students I've become so attached to. My first few months I remember being really frustrated I couldn't communicate with them and understand their stories, answer their questions, or discipline them. But as the year goes on, I've come to realize just how non-verbal a language skill really is. I've discovered their personalities, their pecking orders in class, what sections of the class they like and don't like, have developed favourites (I know I shouldn't) and not so favourites. Sure, the ALT's have better hours and holidays, an easier job and more money, but they don't have the connection I have with my small intimate classes. Let me give you an insight into my day yesterday.
7:30am - I wake up even though my alarms set for 8:30am. This is probably because up until last Sunday I was waking up early in the morning to study for my geography class because I'm too tired when I come home at night. I turn on my heater so the room is not so cold when I do get up eventually. Japanese heating and insulation sucks. In fact, there is no insulation.
8:10ish am - I get up and feed Sashimi (my fish), turn on the kettle and hop in the shower
8:30AM - sit on FB while drinking multiple cups of coffee, eating brekkie (yogurt and banana) and thinking I should do something productive with my morning seeing as I don't have to be at the office till 12:10pm
9:00AM - I throw some laundry in the washing machine. Clean the toilet. Decide to make okinomiyaki to take for lunch the next few days because I know I'll be too busy to again till Sunday, if I'm lucky. ADD kicks in and I decide I should wrap presents but can't decide what to give to who (I bought a bunch of foreign goodies in Hiroshima last Sunday after I wrote my exam to give to some students). Scrap that idea. Decide to sit and watch Misfits while I make goodie bags for the kids.
10:30AM - Should probably hang my laundry out to dry. Keep forgetting about my okinomiyaki sizzling away.
11:00AM - Should probably start getting ready for work
12:00PM - That's me running out the door, late, coffee in hand. How do I always end up rushing to work when I get up so early?
12:10PM - Just on time. I'm greeted at the door in a flurry. Always in a hurry as usual, but with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Oh Japan...I get my schedule and get my files together. I'm going to Yanai today and Tomas is driving me. Ugh. I hate driving with Tomas. I'd much rather take the train and stare out the window or read or write. Tomas is the other foreign teacher at my school He's American and he's an arrogant, pompous, conceited, self-righteous, anti-social twat. Our car rides usually consist of silence and the sound of the buttons on my phone while I e-mail someone. If I do say anything it's more often than not met with silence or a sarcastic remark. How he's a conversation teacher I really don't know. He also had the nerve to ask me when I'll be out of my childish phase because I was excited about Halloween. I really wish he would have quit so I could work with someone cool. But unfortunately he's a loner who likes to hike so Shitari is perfect for him. I especially like the train ride to Iwakuni. After Yanai, I can just sit and stare at the sea. I often think one day I'd like to just get off in one of the little towns I always stop in and have a look around but of course it's probably never going to happen. It reminds me of the Jack Johnson lyrics 'I hope this old train breaks down, then I could take a walk around, and see what there is to see, and time is just a melody, all the people in the street, walk as fast as their feet can take them, I just roll through town, and though my windows got a view, the frame I'm looking through, seems to have no concern for now...'
12:50pm - Arrive in Yanai and I'm supposed to prepare for my 6 classes from now until 2pm. The classes are all the same and I can do it in my sleep by now. Plus they're mainly just working on their skits for the Christmas drama day so no real learning. From 2pm to 2:20pm I'm supposed to be having my first 20 minutes of break time, so I wander over to 7-11 to buy something to eat when I get my next 40 minutes. Im so sick of 7-11 bentos, onigiri, and convenience food by now, but I don't ever have the time to cook real food. It should be a New Years Resolution not to eat at 7-11 everyday. I never ate there this much even in Canada as a uni student!
2:20PM - my first class of the day is with a cute little old man who's about 72. Kazuo's English is pretty good, even if he thinks it's not. I don't prepare much for his class anymore as we usually don't do any of it, and just sit and chat instead. Some of the adult students are like this and some are shy and you have to prepare a lot for the lesson. Sometimes Kazuo picks me up from the station and we listen to NHK and I spend the class explaining what the news was talking about in English.
3:20PM - I'm supposed to have my next 40 minutes of break time now. I hate when she breaks the schedule up like this, it's so ridiculous because it doesn't have to be done and it always means we don't get our full actual break time. One of the many reasons I'm leaving in February.
4:00PM - 15 minutes of cleaning time and then a kindergarten student is supposed to come to practice his speech for 10 minutes but he doesn't….why couldn't I just have my full hour of break time here???
4:25PM - kindergarten class. It's only 2 little boys but they are little hellions and some days they make me want to cry, they're so frustrating. The mother of one always stays but it doesn't help at all, she just sits there and yells his name (JUNKO!) or talks to them in Japanese. Today she brings me a Christmas gift of an Astro Boy mug, notebook and calendar because I once told her I like Astro Boy. I think she always feels sorry for me having to teach this class all the time. Her little 3 year old that is always with her is super cute too. The boys are actually relatively good today.
5:10PM - 2nd class of 5 in a row with no break. Its an elementary class of 5 boys, a girl, and 3 different learning levels. But of course the boss doesn't care about that, so no one in the class is actually learning anything. Sometimes they can be bratty but they've been good the last few months since I made the mistake of complaining about them to the boss and she had a talk with them and made them cry and stripped them of their youthful spirit :(. We're mainly practicing for drama day today so its an easy class. They've found the picture in their books of my introduction a year ago when I had black hair and hard core tranny bangs and have decided I look like Lady Gaga so at the end of the class when I say 'Attention! Goodbye everyone!' Instead of saying 'Goodbye Jiggy Sensei!' They say 'Goodbye Lady Gaga!' Thank goodness Daiki's mother didn't sit in today…I never know what to think of her, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't like me since August when she saw me at a beer garden with piercings and tattoos out for all the world to see lol
6:10PM - Next class is one of my favourites, 3 girls in the 6th grade and 1 boy in the 5th grade. Admittedly, when I first started I dreaded teaching this class because they were so noisy, but I've got used to them, plus there used to be twice as many of them. I remember talking in class all the time at that age, and I was ridiculously shy then. They're studying for Eiken 4 now so there English isn't great but we still somehow find a way to communicate and they're one of the classes I'll miss the most. They're also the only class who can say my name and calls me 'Tzigane Teacher' instead of 'Ziggy Teacher'. I think we've bonded over a mutual dislike for the boss ever since they told me their nickname for her is 'GO' (short for Gedai o kure meaning old fashioned or out of date). Today they're asking me if I have a boyfriend and if its Tomas, at which point I scream NO! and we start teasing Chikara about his girlfriend who's in the grade above him (so I of course give him a high five). Chikara also does an amazing impression of Kazushige (aka Captain Fruitloops), a Japanese teacher when I first started who was ridiculously polite. He also tries to make me say unko (poo in Japanese). When I tell them it's sometimes -50C in Canada, they tell me they would die, by first doing a sleeping gesture and then flying to the sky.
7:10PM - This class is a private class with a girl who is painfully shy. I think she's about 11 or 12 and her English is good (she's studying for Eiken Pre-2) but it's so difficult to get a word out of her. She reminds me a bit of myself at that age. Tomas once described her as a paraplegic puppy….I told you he's a jerk.
8:10PM - Last class of the day is with Yuina. She's been studying English since she was pretty much a baby and is practically fluent. She's 12 now and one of my favourite students, ever since I met her. She's so cute, I wish she was my little sister and could just give her a giant hug. She always has the cutest clothes and talks about Hannah Montana and High School Musical and Zack Effron. She's studying Eiken 2 now, but most of our class I end up just talking with her. Today I teach her to say 'for shizzle my nizzle'.
9:10PM - Our class is over and Yuina's mother gives me a ride to Yanai eki because the school is about a 30-40 minute walk away. I've walked it before but most of the time I get a ride. I usually get there just in time for the train to Hikari at 9:24PM. It's about a 20 minute train ride and I have to stop at the office to drop off the files and give the boss my schedule for the day before I can get home, usually around 10PM. I cook some noodles for my dinner, check out Facebook, chat to some friends, and watch some crappy TV before doing dishes and heading to bed around 11:30PM…I used to stay up late and get up late but now I try to keep a semi regular schedule.
And that's my day in a nutshell.Its not for everyone, but I've grown to love it :)
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